Last week while walking the towpath I was rather surprised to see workboats on hire from Rothen Group dredging at bridge 92 and a few days later on friday at bridge 91. Speaking to the crew I was informed that they were dredging specifically in order to free up the two ‘stop gates’ because they were badly silted up and unuseable. It seems that CRT have finally decided that it is time to do something about the towpath side embankment which has been moving ‘sideways’ for several years now.
Also along the embankment on friday were a survey crew with a theodolite who were measuring the movement of marker studs placed into the towpath tarmac. They informed me that this is now a fortnightly duty for them and I’m not surprised as the path has warning signs for pedestrians, large cracks appearing in it and lower down the embankment where the path leads down to the road there is a suspicious looking wet patch where water is clearly seeping through.
Perhaps CRT (after several years) have finally woken up to the fact that a significant breach is a distinct possibility here and given the dredging to clear the stop gates and the survey team’s very regular measurement schedule it may well be that they perceive it as an ‘imminent’ possibility !
Another example of CRT’s maintenance policy of ‘ignore it until the issue becomes critical’ ?
well i wont be tying up along there mate !
Dont worry, that embankment is reinforced with blue signs on big posts 🤣
All happening just a few miles along the cut from Middlewich Branch. Remember Middlewich ? The years of ignoring the reported leaking, the ‘sinkhole’ bullshit when it breached, the same old bleating about 250 years old canals as though they didn’t know what they were taking on… twats !
Those stop gates haven’t been touched in years so somebody is seriously worried about this situation. The phrase ‘scared shitless’ springs to mind !